If Harry Kane didn’t make himself clear enough on Thursday, he was crystal clear the following day.
He wants to leave Tottenham, he wants to stay in the Premier League, and he wouldn’t mind playing with Kevin De Bruyne while he’s at it.
In fact, the question over who Kane would love to play with most had barely finished before Kane was explaining why De Bruyne is the perfect supplier for a striker as prolific as himself.
His point is a fair one. De Bruyne can find the run of any player in front of him, or whip a dangerous ball right into the areas Kane thrives on in the box.
If anything, City’s only weakness this season has been a lack of a natural finisher, someone willing to attack the space in the box where there has so often been nobody offering an option to a winger who’s done all the hard work to get behind the defence.
Kane is someone who will come deep and link like Gabriel Jesus, but would also be licking his lips at the amount of crosses and cutbacks he could convert like Sergio Aguero has made a career out of.
Making a move for Kane won’t be straightforward. As much as he wants to stay in the Premier League and try to break Alan Shearer’s record of 260 goals, Daniel Levy won’t be keen to sell to a rival and won’t sell cheap when he doesn’t have to.
But that’s because Levy will know selling Kane to City won’t only weaken their own chances of a top four finish, or even trying to win the league, it will give City the one missing piece of the jigsaw in their title defence.
Pep Guardiola namechecked six clubs who could rival them for the title next season, and while Spurs weren’t there, he added that ‘many clubs’ could either challenge or influence the direction of the title.
Signing Kane would be akin to a tried and tested tactic employed by Bayern Munich every year – bringing in the best players from your rivals to make your own team stronger and weaken a direct competitor in the process.
But it wouldn’t only be a blow for Spurs, with Manchester United also heavily linked with Kane and their fans getting excited over the possibility of signing the big-name, prolific striker they need to reach the next level.
Should Harry Kane be a priority for City this summer? Have your say in the comments here.
They might have finished second this year, but have never truly threatened City and weren’t good enough to reach the Champions League knockout stages. They need a world class forward and a solid, Ruben Dias-type centre-back at the very least this summer.
Like City, Erling Haaland is a target for United, but Kane fits their ideal transfer target of British, proven, hungry and with at least five years left at the top level. If City pipped them to signing Kane, they would have to scramble around for an alternative while seeing their superior city rivals get even stronger.
In one transfer, City could wipe Spurs and United out of the title race next season before it even begins.
